Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and reached peak popularity in the early 1990s. The style is often affiliated with bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, and Ride. The term "shoegazing" was initially devised by the British music press as a gibe meant to ridicule the stage presence of the so-called dream pop groups of the period, who stood still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state, often with their heads down;[1][2] the heavy use of effects pedals also contributed to the image of performers looking down at their feet during concerts. The shoegazing sound is typified by significant use of ethereal guitar effects and indistinguishable vocal melodies that blend into the noise of the guitars.[1] The term was often used contemporaneously with "dream pop."[3][4][5]

A general description given to shoegazing and other affiliated bands in London in the early 1990s was The Scene That Celebrates Itself. In the early 1990s, shoegazing groups were pushed aside by the American grunge movement and early Britpop acts such as Suede, forcing the relatively unknown bands to break up or reinvent their style altogether.[1] In the 2000s, there was renewed interest in the genre among "nu gaze" bands.

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Common musical elements of shoegazing consist of distortion, droning riffs and a "wall of sound" from noisy guitars. Typically, two distorted rhythm guitars are played together to give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.

Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but a strong sense of melody generally exists underneath the layers of guitars. However, lyrics are not emphasized, nor are vocals.[6] While the genres that influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming.

The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig.[7] The term was picked up by the NME, who used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands' guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals—while playing, seemingly deep in concentration. Melody Maker preferred the more staid term The Scene That Celebrates Itself, referring to the habit that the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegazing bands, often in Camden, and often moonlighting in each other's bands:

The shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegazing by the British press because the bandmembers stared at the stage while they performed.[1]

The term was often considered pejorative, especially by the English weekly music press who considered the movement as ineffectual, and it was disliked by many of the groups it purported to describe,

Shoegazing was originally a slag-off term. My partner [K.J. "Moose" McKillop], who was the guitarist in Moose, claims that it was originally leveled at his band. Apparently the journo was referring to the bank of effects pedals he had strewn across the stage that he had to keep staring at in order to operate. And then it just became a generic term for all those bands that had a big, sweeping, effects-laden sound, but all stood resolutely still on stage. – Miki Berenyi[6]

"We didn't want to use the stage as a platform for ego, like the big bands of the time did, like U2 and Simple Minds. We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that, too."[2]

Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life cites an early 1990s Dinosaur Jr. tour of the United Kingdom as a key influence.[16] While not classified as a shoegazing band, Dinosaur Jr. did share a tendency to blend poppy melody with loud guitars and laconic vocals. A lengthy 1992 US tour featuring My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and Yo La Tengo raised the genre's profile in the US considerably.

The coining of the term "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" was in many ways the beginning of the end for the first wave of shoegazers. The bands became perceived by critics as over-privileged, self-indulgent and middle-class.[6] This perception was in sharp contrast with both the bands who formed the wave of newly commercialised grunge music which was making its way across the Atlantic, as well as those bands who formed the foundation of Britpop, such as Pulp, Oasis, Blur and Suede.[2] Britpop also offered intelligible lyrics, often about the trials and tribulations of working-class life; this was a stark contrast to the "vocals as an instrument" approach of the shoegazers, which often prized the melodic contribution of vocals over their lyrical depth. Lush's final album was an abrupt shift from shoegazing to Britpop, which alienated many fans; the 1996 suicide of their drummer signaled Lush's dissolution. Following a long gap from My Bloody Valentine since Loveless, aside from their 2008 reunion tour, the band released MBV in February 2013. Frontman Kevin Shields explained their silence by noting, "I never could be bothered to make another record unless I was really excited by it."[19]

^Nathaniel Wice / Steven Daly: "The dream pop bands were lionized by the capricious British music press, which later took to dismissing them as "shoegazers" for their affectless stage presence.", Alt. Culture: An A-To-Z Guide to the '90s-Underground, Online, and Over-The-Counter, p.73, HarperCollins Publishers 1995, ISBN 0-0627-3383-4

^Pete Prown / Harvey P. Newquist: "One faction came to be known as dream-pop or "shoegazers" (for their habit of looking at the ground while playing the guitars on stage). They were musicians who played trancelike, ethereal music that was composed of numerous guitars playing heavy droning chords wrapped in echo effects and phase shifters.", Hal Leonard 1997, ISBN 0-7935-4042-9

^Simon & Schuster: The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock, p.49, Fireside, March 1997, ISBN 0684814374"A.R.Kane, the London duo ... (who dubbed their music "dreampop") exerted a profound sonic influence on the legion of trippy shoegazer guitar bands that would emerge a few years later in the UK."